


time is slowing and it's frozen still

by karishma



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, brown university!au, obscene abuse of commas/italics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 09:38:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karishma/pseuds/karishma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>liam and louis are students at brown university and they kiss under soldier's arch at midnight</p>
            </blockquote>





	time is slowing and it's frozen still

**Author's Note:**

> this is a work of pure fiction.
> 
> however, in a world in which an infinite number of universes exist, this story is bound to be true in at least one of them. and if this story is true in one world, it is true in all of them.
> 
> so maybe it's not as fiction as we think.
> 
>  
> 
> this is completely unbetaed, because I know no one I could have sent this to, so all mistakes are my own
> 
> title from twenty one pilots' 'holding on to you'
> 
> disclaimer inspired by a book I've once read, but now can't remember the name of

It’s 10:46 and Louis is done with Mr. Warner and 20th century literature and his ridiculous four hundred dollar textbook that’s left no less than three holes in his flat wall. He drops his head onto the table and it only takes 23 seconds for Liam to look up from his BioCalc book and run his fingers through Louis’ hair and down his neck.

****

“This is it, this is the end of the line for me. Tell Lee and Kesey and Capote that they have killed me. Tell Mr. Warner it may have been worth his while to take Grimshaw on as a TA. Tell my par–”

****

And then he’s cut off because Liam is speaking and “Lou, babe, if you finish revising for this class I’ll kiss you under the arch in–” he looks at his watch, “sixty-eight minutes.”

****

His heart stutters a little, skips a few beats, and screeches to a halt and Louis was so, _so_ wrong. _Liam_ is going to be the death of him because Soldier's Arch at Brown is legendary and supposedly if you’re kissed under it at midnight you’ll get married. It takes Louis three minutes ( _minutes_ ) to stammer out a–

****

“Why, Liam Payne, is this a marriage proposal, because I expected flowers at the very least,” like proper Southern woman and when Liam barks out a laugh eight seconds later the librarian glares at their table and Liam quiets immediately, because, well, it’s _Liam_.

****

Liam knocks his ankle into Louis’ under the table seventeen minutes later and it stays there. Louis blushes, even after all this time.

****  
.** **

****

See, it starts like this.

****

Liam is insane.

****

He wakes up at 6:30 to run four miles before his morning lab. He has an actual gym membership, even though Brown has a free Fit/Rec center on campus, because he swears the Cardio Extreme instructor at Gold’s is the best in the entire nation.

****

So it only makes sense that he works part time as a bike tour guide.

****

And Louis is– Louis is confused when he meets Liam because he’s just moved to Providence and he needs to know where the good coffee shops and cupcakeries are, so it only makes sense that he books himself a tour.

****

Louis is more than averse to physical exercise, but it only takes him 39 seconds to figure out that he’s signed himself up for a bike tour instead of a bus tour (there’s a reason he’s an English major).

****

They say it takes someone seven seconds to determine another’s physical attractiveness, but Louis begs to differ because wow his guide has nice calves and nice hair and a nice back and nice eyes and–

****

It only takes Louis .8 seconds to decide that Liam is someone he’d like to have in his bed, 24 minutes to decide that Liam is someone he’d like to have in his life, and 71 minutes to decide that Liam is someone he’d like to have in his home.

****

Louis is fucked nine and a half weeks before Liam lays him out and presses him into the white duvet, pushing in and murmuring something that sounds suspiciously like _this is a million times better than any cardio class._

****

When Louis scrawls his number onto a five and mashes it into Liam’s hand at the end of the tour it’s a little presumptuous, but he’s smiling up through his lashes and subtly wiping sweat off his lower back and upper lip.

****

“Thanks, really great tour, do you happen to know which place around here that makes the best tea?”

****

It takes Liam four minutes to change into street clothes and nine to arrive at Franc’s.

****

When Liam asks for Louis’ number at the end of the afternoon, he replies “you already have it,” a little cryptically, and it’s three minutes later when Liam’s paying that he notices the small  handwriting at the bottom of the five bill and grins up at Louis with crinkled eyes and cheeks pushed high on his face.

****

Louis sees the same smile again, four days later, when he presses a kiss onto Liam’s lips and licks into his mouth slowly, with no pretense. Somewhere he notices that Liam tastes like blackberries and greek yoghurt and, impossibly, of a future.

****

He cards his fingers through Liam’s cropped hair and rests them on his neck and then pulls away, smiling up at Liam and watching the way the streetlights make his eyes appear liquid and malleable.

****  
.** **

****

It’s 11:54 when Liam drags Louis out of the library and across campus. This is life-changing, okay, he’s tripping over his feet and Liam is holding the back of his shirt like Louis’ currently intact body depends on it; it _does_ because Louis would be laying somewhere on the floor of the library if Liam wasn’t there.

****

They finally, _finally_ , reach the arch and he’s suddenly nervous.

****

The thing is, Louis graduates in fifteen days, but Liam still has a year left in uni.

****

It’s not that he’s scared about his relationship with Liam, they’ve been together for four years, seven months, and eighteen days, but.

****

Louis has never been lucky in love.

****

His parents divorced when he was seven and a half; his mum is so, _so_ lovely, and when she tried to explain, told him _it just stopped working_ , he wanted to scream _why didn’t you try harder?_

****

It bewilders him until he’s fifteen and he’s dating Marc, who has big glasses and blonde hair and scuffed DM’s. They fit; like the same music and read the same books and spend hours trying to find Circinus in the sky. And then one day they find the correct stars, and it’s. It’s not impressive, is all. And later when Louis looks it up on his phone, it turns out there’s no story behind Circinus, just some shit constellation someone thought up once because there are a few important stars in the sky that ought to have been connected.

****

Marc comes by one day, tells Louis maybe their relationship is a little like Circinus; they’ve been looking so long and there’s honestly nothing there. Louis–he’s a team player, holds it together until Marc has walked back down the street and he can’t see blonde hair anymore, then finally slides down the door and thinks about crying. He doesn’t though, only knocks his head back on the wood until he feels a dull ache, because, _yeah, maybe Marc was right_.

****

The problem is that Marc is just the start of a long, long line of shit boyfriends. Marc is (was) by far the best boyfriend he’s ever had (but then there’s _Liam_ , with his breakfast in beds and terrible grammar and hot baths on bad days).

****

Louis is not stupid, okay. He realizes he’s tiny and has golden skin and crinkled eyes and cinnamon hair and damnit, he’s _pretty_.

****

And then there’s Liam, with his spine and rough palms and buzzed hair and calves (he has such nice calves) and–Louis is waiting, is all. Waiting for something to go wrong, something to fizzle out on Liam’s side, waiting for Liam to stop trying. Sometimes it feels like he’s counting down the time until Liam leaves him; marking every moment in some sort of unwritten journal for later review.

****

The thing is, right now Liam is holding Louis up against the arch, pressing his back into the stone. His hands are sitting on Louis’ waist, because they are in _public, Louis, have_ some _modesty_. They’ve been standing there for 26 seconds before Liam ducks in, a little shyly, and catches the bow of Louis lip between his. It’s soft, feels a little like a familiar first kiss.

****

They kiss, eight minutes, Louis counts, and it feels like maybe this is something that could never fade. The way Liam holds Louis like he’s the Hope Diamond and the way his tongue flits out of his mouth, briefly, tucks into Louis before he’s drawing back and glancing down with so much fondness that Louis tilts his head onto Liam’s shoulder.

****

Liam presses his fingers into the back of Louis’ neck, draws his head up so Louis can see the words in Liam’s eyes before he says them (they look a lot like his eyes did when they first kissed, and Louis thinks maybe Liam’s never looked at him any differently).

****

“I love you, you know.”

****

Louis huffs a sigh, because, yes, he knows, but he also needs to hear it now, when everything else in his life is uncertain.

****

Liam pauses for 11 seconds before continuing, “I love you like Kate and William and the sun and the moon and the way a clock never stops ticking, and, fuck, I’m a sap, but I really, _really_ hope to everything that this damn arch works because, Louis, this feeling isn’t stopping anytime soon.”

****

Louis presses his face into Liam’s shoulder, inks a muffled _Li-_ Liam, _I love you too_ , and feels his eyes wet and dampen Liam’s shirt for 47 seconds.

****

Liam lifts his head and marks Louis’ lips again and again and again.

****

It’s 12:55 when they finally head to their flat.

****  
.** **

****

And maybe, in three years, two months, and 19 days Louis will be standing in the back of a church, pulling at a tie and trying not to touch his hair.

****

And maybe, in three years, two months, and 19 days Liam will be standing in the front of a church, pulling at a tie and trying not to touch his hair.

****

And maybe it will take Louis the longest 79 seconds of Liam’s life to walk down the aisle.

****

Maybe it will take Louis six minutes for him to recite his vows, and maybe it will take Liam nine minutes because he’s stumbling and bumbling and Louis’ _gorgeous_.

****

And maybe Liam will kiss Louis for 27 seconds when the officiant pronounces them Mr. and Mr. Payne (because, let’s be honest, Tomlinson is a mouthful).

****

But.

****

Louis has long stopped counting.

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first work _ever_ , so feedback would be enormously appreciated (sweets and chocolates for everyone who comments/kudos)
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at sinabit


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